Staff Reporter :
A key road in Dhaka, stretching from Gulshan-2 to Progoti Sarani, has been officially renamed ‘Felani Avenue’ in memory of Felani Khatun, the teenage girl killed at the border.
The interim government adviser Asif Mahmud Sajib Bhuiyan confirmed the renaming in a Facebook post on Tuesday, December 9. He said the road within the Diplomatic Zone now bears the name ‘Felani Avenue’ as a symbolic tribute to the young girl shot dead by BSF forces at the border.
Last year on September 13, in protest of the border killing, a group called the People’s Activist Coalition (PAC) had declared the road adjacent to the Indian Embassy in Gulshan as ‘Shaheed Felani Road’ and installed a signboard there.
Felani was fatally shot on January 7, 2011, at the Anantapur border in Fulbari upazila of Kurigram district. The 15-year-old was returning home with her father from India when BSF troops opened fire. Her body hung on barbed wire for more than four hours, sparking widespread media outrage and intense debate over border security both in Bangladesh and abroad.
The newly named ‘Felani Avenue’ in Dhaka is expected to become a lasting symbol of that tragedy and ongoing protest.
